


Birthday

by boredomsMuse



Category: Undertale
Genre: Cute Dorks, M/M, Sad sans at the start, What if this, headcannon, so like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 16:51:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5935786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boredomsMuse/pseuds/boredomsMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something Sans has been ignoring for years.  Something that he could pretend never happened in the underground, but now it was all but impossible when he walked among humans daily.</p><p>And really, there's only one place for him to go when he'd upset.</p><p>(A headcannon about what Sans might be)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday

It’d been easy to forget he’d never had skin in the underground, easy to forget he’d never been human when they didn’t surround him.  Now though?  It was impossible to move without remembering a time when he couldn’t hear his bones, couldn’t see them. 

 

He’d decided long ago he hated Gaster, but these days he was starting to just hate everything.  It wasn’t fair.

 

He watched Frisk grow up, started to believe that they really weren’t going to reset again.  He wanted to be happy, instead he felt more and more jealous with each inch the other grew.  He hated himself even more than he did everything else.

 

With that pleasant thought he downed his glass.  He wasn’t even sure how many he’d had. 

 

“’Ey, can I grab a burger?”  A voice Sans didn’t know said as its owner sat next to the skeleton.  “And a raspberry vodka.”  The fiery bartender nodded and got to work as the human’s right neighbour tensed up, his flood of his emotion clear on his face.  Grillby was quick to serve the human before noticing his favourite costumer’s locked joints.  A finger of fire tapped the spot on the bench Sans was glaring, gaining the attention of white pinpricks in black sockets.  Grillby pointed to a door that read ‘employees only’. 

 

“Grillz, I’m fine.”  Sans sighed.  The fire elemental would have raised an eyebrow if he had to, though the same gesture was given though his stare.

 

“Honest.”  San’s shrugged, leaning back and looking to the other side of the room.

 

When had this place been such a hot spot for humans?

 

A crackle, like that of a wood fire, was quiet to miss if you weren’t focused on the bar tender the way sans was, he sighed, forcing himself to look back at the man.  Grillby moved his fingers and hands in a way Sans had memorized over the timelines before the bar tender pointed at the door again for emphasis.

 

‘ _Upstairs.  Now Sans.’_

 

“Fine, fine, geez G.”  Sans grumbled, getting off the chair that was too high for him and stumbling upstairs to the part of the building Grillby lived in.  He knew that it’d be a while until Grillby was free so he let himself drop onto the couch, sleeping.

 

The human looked to the monster to their left.

 

“Did I do something?”  They asked and Red Bird just shrugged.

 

“Sans is too cool a guy to let anyone get to him.  He and Grillby are just close, it’s probably something else.  Or at least I never had to translate for Sans so I guess they’re close.  Good thing, I always made up what Grillby was saying.”

 

 

When Sans woke up it was because he could feel heat.  He liked being able to feel heat, sensation had become so uncommon to the skeleton that it was nice to feel at all.  White irises formed in his sockets as he awoke, the dots falling to the orange figure who was genteelly shaking him.

 

“Closin’ time already?”  He asked before he remembered he was on a couch right now, not a bar top. 

 

“I closed a while ago, I let you sleep further.”  Grillby told him.  Sans stared at the mouth as it formed and moved, yawning softly when it closed again.  Grillby was also so nervous about it, he’d told Sans that it often scared people when he spoke, even monsters weren’t accosted to the sigh of the molten lava splitting and dripping, the jagged appearance the mouth held.  Sans always felt special when he saw it, knowing Grillby didn’t talk to just anyone.

 

Tonight though it just made him feel more distant from the person he’d once been so long ago.

 

“Thanks.”  The skeleton yawned.

 

“Will you tell me what’s wrong?”  The bartender wasted no time, he never did. 

 

“Nothin’ Grillz, just a long day.”  Sans shrugged, grinning at the fire.

 

“Sans.”  Grillby sighed, using _that_ tone, the one Sans hated because he couldn’t manage to lie to the man when he used it.  The skeletons trademark grin faltered. 

 

“…”  He was silent for a time, sitting up and looking at his feet in their slippers.  He could feel magical tears swell in his eyes sockets.  He hated Grillby.

 

But of course he knew that wasn’t true, of course he couldn’t hate the man, of course he couldn’t hate everything, of course he couldn’t hate frisk.

 

Hell, he didn’t even hate Gaster as much as he tried to pretend he did.

 

“It’s my birthday.”  Sans mumbled, Grillby frowned.

 

“You’re birthday?  Sans, I didn’t know you had started to use the human term for your souls creation day, though I am certain that’s not today, I have the date marked and the weekend free as I know how big your brother is on celebrating it.”  The flame told him and Sans shook his head before resting the bone on his knees.

 

“No Grillz, it’s my _birth_ day.  The day my mother went through the painful process of labour and a doctor cut the cord that connected us and she handed me over to strangers.”  Sans said, hating himself when a sob wracked through his body.

 

“Sans?”  Grillby frowned, his confusion more clear than anything.

 

“Didn’t you ever wonder why the only thing my brother and I have in common was the fact we’re skeletons?  Not even our magic’s the same.  Not even our jaw shape, or our body types.  We’re so different but down there I could forget that, down there it wasn’t a big deal.”  The skeleton continued, not stopping to help his host understand what he was raving about.  “You don’t even remember Gaster, no one does, but you’ve gotta remember when we met right?”

 

“Of course I remember when we met Sans.”  Grillby said.  “Who is Gaster?”  But the skeleton acted as though he didn’t hear Grillby’s response.

 

“Don’t you think it’s strange I don’t look at all different?  That nothing about my appearance has changed when everything else has?”  Sans asked.

 

“I suppose it was odd, but I never thought anything of it.  Sans where is this going?”  Grillby asked.

 

“I wasn’t born a monster Grillby, okay?  I was never meant to be one!  I was never meant to be able to see my joints when I moved, never meant to be bleach white, never meant to have a family, never meant to be this old.”  Sans was yelling now, all but screaming as though Grillby could understand what he meant.  “You’d think after so many years I’d be over it, and I thought I was.  But now I’m not.  Everywhere I look there’s reminders of what I was meant to be, reminders of what I’m not.”

 

“Sans.”  Grillby spoke softly, sitting on the couch next to the skeleton, pulling him close to his body.  “Tell me what happened.”  Sans buried his head in Grillby’s shoulder.

 

“It was during the war, ya know?  Back before monsters were trapped.  Gaster was tryin’ to do something to help the monsters win.  Or at very least stop ‘em from turning into dust.  One day he found a ten year old boy all alone.  So he grabbed him, listened to the kid, took him in.  The goal was to take the boys soul but Gaster couldn’t do it.  He didn’t want to kill him.  So instead he decided he’d find a way to do both.  He strapped the kid down on night while he was sleeping.  He wanted to do it before the kid work up but when he injected magic into his arm the human woke up in pain.  He kept apologizing, promising him that it’d be fine in a bit.  The humans flesh was vanishing, being taken some blue force, and Gaster just watched, waiting until the flesh was gone and then the organs were vanishing and finally the human’s soul was exposed.  He went to grab it and the human screamed.  Gaster thought his magic would create a new soul, let the human live on.  Instead it was infecting the human’s current one.  The human passed out, when he woke up he wasn’t human.  Gaster was crying.  When he saw the human was alive he embraced it, apologizing over and over and swearing he’d had the best intentions, swearing it hadn’t meant to go like this.  He raised the human turned monster and one day Gaster had a kid with another skeleton and he raised the two boys.  But the human turned monster realized as the baby bones aged that he wasn’t aging.  He was still in the body of a ten year old.  Gaster tried to make sure that he never minded.  Then one day Gaster disappeared.  The monsters had lost their mother when the baby bones was born but now they were all alone and no one even remembered Gaster, not even the baby bones.  So the human turned monster had to go find a way for them to live and they found themselves in Snowdin one day and met a flame that helped the older one get a job and pay the bills and feed them both and the human turned monster one day realized he’d fallen head over heels for the fire but how the hell was he meant to say anything when he wasn’t even a real monster?  Wasn’t a real human?  Wasn’t really either.”  Sans stopped himself.  Grillby had listened silently, letting his friend tell him everything.  He didn’t quite understand most of it, he had no idea who Gaster was, but he listened and tried to understand.

 

“Heh, sorry, guess I got a little carried away, I meant to tell ya just the _bare bones_ of it.”  Sans said after a moment of silence, making to pull away.  Grillby quickly grabbed a hold of his wrists.

 

“Let me tell you a story as well.”  He said after a moment.  Sans looked confused and hesitated but nodded. 

 

“Sure man, I’m _burning_ to hear it.”  The pun had been a stretch but neither commented on it.

 

“A flame monster had lost everything to the war, trapped underground he’d promised himself he’d start fresh.  He met a nice woman and he had a beautiful daughter with her but the relationship was rickety at best and it was over quickly.  Again the monster started a fresh, making sure to stay close to his daughter.  He moved to a snowy town as close to the ruins and as close to the entrance to the underground as he could be.  One day, before they were closed off for good, he went for a walk in the ruins and found a skeleton staring up at the hole to the mountain, staring at the stars.  The monster asked what he was doing and skeleton replied he was missing his home.  Confused, the monster said that he couldn’t mean the surface, he seemed much too young but the skeleton just chuckled softly and said that the monster had got him red handed.  It was that laughter that started what the monster thought was an amazing friendship.  He made sure to look after the skeleton and the skeleton was always there when the monster needed him.  He thought they kept no secrets from each other until one night when the skeleton came into the bar and drank more than the monster really thought he should and told the monster to put it on his tab, told him it didn’t matter anyway, the human would reset again and once more he’d be the only one to remember.  That night the monster realized he had a lot to learn about his closet friend but he decided he didn’t mind, that he would certainly learn everything, because he realized that he had fallen in love with his friend.  And years later, on the same day, he’s realized he has more he needs to understand and more he needs to accept he never will, but he’s still perfectly fine with that because, apparently, his closet friend returned his feelings.”  Sans was starring wide eyed up at Grillby as the flame finished and returned his look of surprise with a soft smile.  Grillby leans forward and kissed Sans skull softly, blue forming at the cheek bones of his receiver. 

 

“I…”  Sans wasn’t sure what to say, white eyes looking to the side rather than at the bright light. 

 

“I do not care if you are human, monster, or neither Sans.”  Grillby said softly.  “You are my closest friend and you are very dear to me.  I cannot say that I understand what you’ve been through nor what you’re feeling right now, but I can promise I will be hear by your side to help for as long as you’ll let me.”  He promised.  Sans looked back to the fire, face still blue.  He was silent for a moment before nodding. 

 

“I’d like that.”  He said softly, leaning up and using his magic to create pseudo lips so he could kiss the flame properly. 

 

When they parted and Sans found the fake flesh disappear he realized he’d never minded not having it.

 

His human life hadn’t been perfect, and never had his life as a monster.  He might not ever be able to shake it from his mind that he was never supposed to be this, but who cares?  Sure he wasn’t meant to be a monster, but he was one now and he was so happy he’d gotten everything that being a monster gave.  As a monster he got a family, he got Grillby, and he wouldn’t trade that for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> So? Thoughts people? I like it.  
> And really, there is not enough sansby on this site omg.  
> I could write so much more for this.


End file.
